The Cedarville nightly adventures continue. Last night, a little bit after 11:00, an all too familiar howling came in through my open window. At first, I thought it was my demonic drummer friend, but I quickly realized it was, in fact, an ambulance. Furthermore, the ambulance was awfully close to my room. I considered investigating, but realized this would involve getting off my butt, so instead I decided to stay on my bed and keep reading.

A few minutes later, I hear thumping coming from my unit's lounge and people shouting "OH MY GOODNESS, THE LAUNDRY ROOM IS ON FIRE!"

My immediate reaction was along the lines of "Well, that's inconvenient." I then began to survey my room to determine what I would want to save and what could be left behind.

The list of things I was planning on saving:


  1. My laptop bag. This included my laptop, laptop charger, and cell phone charger.

  2. My purse. This included my cell phone, wallet, mp3 player, and flash drive.

  3. My jewelry box.

  4. A drink. I figured I'd get thirsty what with all the evacuating and smoke.

A few minutes later, I still hadn't heard anyone shouting at me to evacuate the building, so I was a bit worried that maybe everyone else had been smart enough to run out themselves. I decided to go out onto our balcony and assess the situation.


My dorm is in a U shape. It looks like this:




Key:


J = Jessica


P = Police Car


L = Laundry Room


F = Fire trucks


A = Ambulance



I live on the second floor of my unit, so I could look down and survey the chaos. All sixteen of the girls from my unit and co-unit are leaning against the railing of the balcony, looking down at the mess. Doors all around the dorm were open, with girls in their pajamas chattering loudly and looking down. I was highly confused, because I didn't see any smoke or people stopping dropping and rolling. But I knew something was wrong because there were two fire trucks, and a police car and ambulance.


I feel as though I should capitalize that so you, dear reader, pay attention to the number of emergency personel. TWO FIRE TRUCKS AND A POLICE CAR AND AN AMBULANCE.

Most of the personel were standing outside their emergency vehicles, arms crossed and eyeing the laundry room. Any minute, I was expecting some fireman to come rushing out of the room, arms clutched around a blanketed toddler. It did not matter to me that there would be no logical reason for a lone toddler to be wandering around our laundry room at 11:30 PM.


A few minutes pass and the excitement passes. I decide to go back to my room and hope the building doesn't blow up.


Awhile later, all the girls in my dorm receive an e-mail informing us that a heater in the laundry room overheated and started to smoke. It has an "out of use" sign and should not be tampered with. The dorm will NOT be evacuated.

Not a great Chicago-style fire. No toddlers to be rescued. No stopping and dropping and rolling. There are TWO FIRETRUCKS AND A POLICE CAR AND AN AMBULANCE for an overheated dryer.


I must say, I'm a little disappointed. I keep clutching my water bottle in hopes that some other emergency where I may get parched will arise.